Printing Nets

Show us your models and discuss model-making techniques. Paper? Wood? Single vs double tabs? etc.
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cwrawk
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Printing Nets

Post by cwrawk » Wed Jun 08, 2016 4:30 am

Is it possible to print double sided on the nets? If you are doing a model that has inverted lines they print on the front and show up and don't look so good. or can some lines be removed? I'm going to do the Great Dodecacronic Hexecontahedron and the dashed lines will be visible. Is there any way to print the nets so you can't see any of the lines? Any help would be great! THX. Corey

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robertw
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Post by robertw » Sat Jun 11, 2016 4:06 am

In my experience, thin printed lines really aren't noticeable (or even visible) in the final model. All my models were made this way. Nets on the screen show dashed lines for valley folds, but use solid lines in the final print-out in order to be even less noticeable.

It would not be possible to print on both sides as you'd never get them to line up. But if you want to, you could just print everything on the back of the paper.

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guy
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Post by guy » Sat Jun 11, 2016 6:03 am

Accurate two-sided printing requires specialist printers able to align more accurately than usual, and it is even more critical that software does not introduce even minor scaling or distortion issues.

If you are using colour, thin printed lines can often be useful. In some models they help even out the visual difference between a crease and a glued join. In others, where faces of the same colour meet at a shallow angle, they can help make the line of "intersection" clearer. They are worth getting used to.

Or, if the spatial presence is of more interest to you than the symmetries, then print on the back and make a plain model.

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